During the period of crisis in the Roman Republic when the Greek influence on art became increasingly strong, Roman art began to emerge as an entity in itself. In 146 B.C.E., a sculptural style came into being that is generally known as Greco-Roman, a term which indicates that the two styl...

Anglo-Saxons In 410 A.D. the Roman legions were recalled to Rome to defend it against barbarian attacks, and Britain was left to fend for itself. Having no armies left the British people were left open to attack from the Picts which was by the sea down the east coast, for the Picts are described i...

Gaius Julius Caesar is perhaps one of the most prominent Romans of the classical period that can be associated with Rome. This is because Julius Caesar can be most credited with, or blamed for both the downfall of the Roman Republic, and the subsequent creation of the Roman Empire. Many questions as...

Ancient Greek Olympic Sports With the almost complete abandonment of classical studies in the later half of the 20th century, most educated individuals know next to nothing about the Ancient Greeks. One exception to this general ignorance, however, is the near universal knowledge (probably due to ...

Music has been a great influence in the lives of many people for many years and is constantly changing. Music has been divided into six periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Twentieth Century. The Medieval period was the longest and most distant period of musical history and consi...

Eternal Prominence: The Impact of Ancient Greece In the eighth century B.C. a revolutionary force embarked on a cultural conquest that would change the western world forever. Greece was conceived, a lustrous gem in a world dominated by routine and rigid conformity. Egypt, renowned up to that poin...

As man evolved over the centuries, his views of art transformed. Each culture and era presents very distinct characteristics of their art. Through time and experimentation, the views of mankind clearly are seen in art. We must understand how art was used in the past to know why we need it today. E...

Just as we use tombstones to mark graves and commemorate our dead, so too did ancient civilizations. One way to do so in the ancient world was through the use of steles. A stele is a stone slab, usually decorated in relief and inscribed, that honored the death of a person. Three of the ancient cu...

Today's society in which we live in has based itself on the past achievements and failures of previous civilizations which rose and fell with the hands of time. Every one of those civilizations made certain contributions to history as well as developing human intellectuality in order to enhance its...

What possible similarity, one might be tempted to ask, could exist between the apparently profoundly secular author of "Letter to Peregrino Zambeccari" the Italian humanist and proto-nationalist Coluccio Salutati, whose life was filled chiefly by political and administrative matters and th...

Born into a time when self serving aspirations in the name of the public well being were the norm of public life, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote his two discourses on public government as a means of demonstrating the differences between moral, and immoral governments, and then as an attempt to...

The Gladiators Munera gladitoria (gladiatorial contests) hold a central place in our perception of Roman behavior. They were also a big influence on how Romans themselves ordered their lives. Attending the games was one of the practices that went with being a Roman. The Etruscans, who introduced th...

The poetry of Ovid spans several genres and varies in style and theme as it follows the tragic life of the exiled literary giant. With fame coming to Ovid early, it is a baffling mystery as to why Ovid was exiled to Tomis, a small colony on the Black Sea. Despite his pleas for exoneration and salvat...

The middle ages 2000 The Roman Empire geographically established the original concept of a European boundary. With all of it's great achievements likee civil law, politics and literature, the collective willpower of the Roman Empire would eventually degrade over time and give way to new id...